Elephants on Acid : and Other Bizarre Experiments

Description

When Tusko the Elephant woke in his pen at the Lincoln Park Zoo on the morning of August 3, 1962, little did he know that he was about to become the test subject in an experiment to determine what happens to an elephant given a massive dose of LSD. In Elephants on Acid, Alex Boese reveals to readers the results of not only this scientific trial but of scores of other outrageous, amusing, and provocative experiments found in the files of modern science. Why can’t people tickle themselves? Would the average dog summon help in an emergency? Will babies instinctually pick a well-balanced diet? Is it possible to restore life to the dead? Read Elephants on Acid and find out. Author Boese (Hippo Eats Dwarf, The Museum of Hoaxes) returns with another look at scientific oddities, this time focusing on unlikely but actual experiments. Included are notorious examples such as the Stanford Prison Experiment and Stanley Milgram's infamous shock treatment obedience experiment, but it's the lesser-known studies that will generate the most interest. Disembodied heads, animal resurrection ("Zombie Kitten," "Franken-Monkey") and the direct stimulation of a subject's emotions (via electric brain prod) are some of the more grim activities Boese describes (though, thankfully, he steers clear of examples from Nazi Germany). Lighter subjects include attempts to prove the myth that the bar patrons become more attractive at closing time and the effects of staying awake for 11 days straight. These and other tales will obviously appeal to armchair scientists, but the short, witty, ceaselessly amusing entries should delight anyone with a healthy sense of morbid curiosity. Cover Title Introduction Contents 1. Frankenstein’s Lab The Body Electric Zombie Kitten The Electrical Acari Severed Heads—an Abbreviated History Human-Ape Hybrid The Man Who Cheated Death The Two-Headed Dogs of Dr. Demikhov Franken-Monkey 2. Sensorama 1.  TOUCH The Mock-Tickle Machine Touching Strangers 2. TASTE What’s the Difference? Coke vs. Pepsi 3. SMELL Synchronous Menstruation (The Scent of a Woman) The Smell of Money Smell Illusions 4. SIGHT The Invisible Gorilla Through a Cat’s Eyes 5. SOUND The Mozart Effect The Acoustics of Cocktail Parties 3. Total Recall Electric Recall Elephants Never Forget The Memory Skills of Cocktail Waitresses Underwater Memory Edible Memory Beneficial Brainwashing The White Bear Lost in the Mall 4. Bedtime Stories Sleep Learning Eleven Days Awake Shaken, Not Stirred Let Sleeping Cats Hunt What Dreams May Come Do Amnesiacs Dream of Electric Tetris? 5. Animal Tales Elephants on Acid Racing Roaches Eyeing an Ungulate Lassie, Get Help! Horny Turkeys and Hypersexual Cats The Brain Surgeon and the Bull 6. Mating Behavior 1. ATTRACTION Arousal on a Creaky Bridge The Hard-to-Get Woman Love at Last Call The Gay Detector 2. SEX Heart Rate During Intercourse The Multiorgasmic Male Pushing the Pleasure Button Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi (Ce Soir)? Counting Pubic Hairs The Penis Imagined as a Sperm-Shoveling Scoop Mommy Likes Clowns 7. Oh, Baby! Little Albert and the Rat Self-Selection of Diet by Infants The Masked Tickler A Girl Named Gua Baby in a Box The New Mother Braking for Baby The Ultimate Baby Movie 8. Toilet Reading The Doctor Who Drank Vomit Magic Feces Space Invaders in the Loo Communal Peeing in Ants The Sweet Smell of Diapers Fart-ology 9. Making Mr Hyde Shocking Obedience Shock the Puppy Requiem for a Rat What a Difference a Bag Makes Behind the Wheel The Stanford Prison Experiment The Unresponsive Bystander 10. The End Fear Factor Heartbeat At Death Dying on Acid A Soul in the Balance The Day The World Didn’t End The Last Survivor Acknowledgments References Endnotes